France confirms avian flu in vaccinated flocks

Ducks were found to be positive for the HPAI virus following routine testing, despite them showing no symptoms of the disease.

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Despite an ongoing nationwide vaccination program for ducks in France, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) infections were confirmed in two of the country’s commercial flocks last week.

The two affected farms are in Morbihan in Brittany (Bretagne) in the northwest of France.

Having suffered devastating series of HPAI outbreaks in recent years, this might not appear to be a significant development. However, the birds involved were commercial ducks, and they had been vaccinated against avian flu.

Confirmation of the outbreaks came as a surprise to the president of the department’s chamber of agriculture, reports Ouest-France.

According to this source, the ducks were found to be positive for the HPAI virus following routine testing. They had shown no symptoms of the disease.

The development will have significant economic impacts on the department’s poultry producers, the official said. Breeders will be unable to re-stock depleted flocks while movement restrictions are in place. One of the directly impacted farmers was planning to receive a new batch of ducks to produce foie-gras for the end-of-year holiday period.

The two outbreaks in ducks started last week at farms in the community of Noyal-Muzillac in Brittany, according to the official notification to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). The affected flocks comprised 7,500 and around 30,200 birds, all of which have been culled.

A few days earlier, a commercial flock of birds of unspecified type had tested positive for the H5 HPAI virus, according to a separate submission to WOAH. Affecting 27,500 domestic poultry, 53 of which died, the farm was also in the department of Morbihan in Brittany.

These latest cases bring to eight the number of HPAI outbreaks in commercial poultry in France since early August. 

In October of last year, France began a state-funded program of HPAI vaccination of commercial duck flocks. As of October 1, close to 48 million birds had received at least one dose of the vaccine, and few outbreaks of HPAI were reported.

In August, the French government committed to supporting a continuation of the program, starting this month.

5 other European states register new cases on farms

As well as France, additional outbreaks of HPAI linked to the H5N1 virus serotype have been reported over the past two weeks in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic (Czechia), Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.

Following a five-month hiatus, the virus was detected again in Slovakia in mid-October. Affected was a flock of more than 40,000 breeding chickens in the southwestern region of Nitra, according to the WOAH notification.

Bulgaria has also confirmed its first HPAI outbreaks in poultry following a brief absence. Starting in late July, the first two outbreaks were in the central province of Plovdiv — involving firstly a farm, and then a premises described as “other” in the WOAH report.

Last week, the national food safety agency confirmed a further outbreak. This involved a flock of more than 350,000 poultry in Yambol in the southeast of the country.

In Hungary, a total of 13 more farms have been affected by outbreaks across four different counties. Many of the flocks so far have comprised foie-gras or fattening ducks or geese. Flocks sizes are not included in the WOAH notifications.

Three latest outbreaks reported to WOAH in Poland involved farms in the central-western province of Greater Poland. Affected were one flock of close to 1.38 million laying hens, and two of breeding ducks (4,218 and 5,320 birds).

Latest update from the nation's chief veterinary office includes a further outbreak affecting close to 60,000 laying hens in the same province. This brings the Polish total to eight outbreaks since August, and 33 for the year to date.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed outbreaks in the Czech Republic has risen to eight so far this year. At the end of last month, the H5N1 HPAI virus was detected in a mixed flock of around 29,000 in total of fattening ducks and game birds in the southwestern region of Plzen, according to the report to WOAH.

More recently, the state veterinary service has reported an outbreak in a flock of just over 7,000 — comprising breeding geese, domestic and wild ducks — in South Moravia in the southwest of the country. 

New cases in captive birds in 6 countries

Over the past two weeks, WOAH has received notification of new HPAI outbreaks in captive birds in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Moldova, and Slovenia. This category includes non-commercial poultry flocks and premises such as zoos.

The Slovenian outbreak affecting a flock of 27 domestic poultry followed a five-month hiatus.

For the other European states, the outbreaks represented a continuation of the seasonal outbreak wave. Three more flocks were affected in each of the Czech Republic and Moldova, two in Hungary, and one in each of Austria and France. 

Wild birds test positive for HPAI in 14 European states

Infections with the H5N1 HPAI virus in this population have been reported to WOAH widely across the continent — from Spain and Portugal to Serbia and Slovakia, and from Germany to Italy. In each country, the number of individuals reported to be infected is low, and no mass mortalities have been recorded.

Furthermore, veterinary agencies of Belgium, Iceland and Great Britain have reported further cases of wild birds infected with the H5N5 virus serotype.

View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation in poultry, and on disease developments in the U.S. dairy sector.

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